


Curiosity

by loserprincess



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015), Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Awkward Flirting, F/M, Kylo Ren Has Issues, Kylo Ren is Matt the Radar Technician, Kylo Ren is a Mess, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Reader needs to control her thoughts, Reader-Insert, Slow Burn, Unresolved Sexual Tension
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-02-24
Updated: 2018-10-05
Packaged: 2019-03-22 22:39:54
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 7,839
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13774095
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/loserprincess/pseuds/loserprincess
Summary: There's a 50/50 chance that Kylo Ren is either a grotesque monster or a complete knockout under that mask of his. You and your friend are constantly bickering about it, and the cute new radar technician seems to want to help you find the answer.





	1. Bucket Head

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everyone! I started a new fic even though I should be working on my other one, whoops. Anyway, I've kind of fallen down a Star Wars rabbit hole, and Matt the Radar Technician is quite possibly my favorite thing, so I obviously had to make a fic centered around him.

You slid your tray of food onto the table, sitting down across from your friend and staring at her for a few solid seconds before you opened your mouth to speak, but she cut you off before you could get out even a single syllable.

“We are absolutely not having this conversation again,” she deadpanned, looking straight into your eyes before stabbing at a piece of food with her fork and placing it into her mouth. “It’s like the third time this week you’ve tried to talk to me about it.”

You cringed as she talked with her mouth full, and you knew that she was doing it just to annoy you, but you didn’t have the heart to be upset with her for it. You had been bugging her a lot recently, but this topic of interest was a question that you needed answered. It had been bothering you for a while now, and you absolutely needed to know the answer, especially since you had been moved from the Finalizer to Star Killer Base a month ago. Bryony wasn’t exactly helping either, as her vehement denials only spurred you on.

“Don’t talk with your mouth full,” you scolded, rolling your eyes at her.

She simply shrugged, swallowing her food before continuing to talk. “Look, all I’m saying is that bucket head _could_ be a complete wackadoo under all that armor of his. Like there are so many species in the galaxy and you think he’s human of all things? I call bullshit.”

You wrinkled your nose at her, looking down to poke at your own food before scowling. You had no idea how she ate this stuff without any reservations. The food they served in the cafeteria was pretty much mush with pieces that looked like it could _possibly_ be a meat-type substance.  Sure, it was served with bread, but you just wished they had something a bit more appetizing than mystery meat jello.

“I thought you weren’t having this conversation, Bry?” You grinned at her, sarcasm dripping from your words.

She grinned right back at you, tongue as sharp as ever. “It’s not my fault you’re obsessed with him.”

You gasped dramatically, placing a hand on your heart as you turned you head to the side and stuck your nose up with fake indignation. “How could you even insinuate such things? I am a proper little lady and I will not have my name slandered like this.”

There was a short pause in the conversation before you heard her start to snicker, but it soon became full blown laughter as the two of you busted up at your little joke. She grinned at you, teeth showing before reaching across the table and giving you a light shove. “Ok, ‘proper little lady’, whatever you say.”

You rolled you eyes at her, taking a bite of your bread as she took another bite of her cafeteria mush.

“Ok, but even if he wasn’t human do you think he’d be hot?”

Bryony nearly choked on her food at this, reaching for her glass of water and gulping it down before she looked at you incredulously. “Are you for real right now, [Y/N]? We’re talking about whether or not the Commander is even human, and your first thought this time around is whether or not he’d be hot? Maker help you girl, you really are sexually repressed. When’s the last time you got laid?”

You felt a flush climb up your neck as she looked at you pointedly, eyebrows raised up high on her forehead as she stared you down.

“I don’t know, like 7 months maybe,” you mumbled, looking down at your food and poking around at it to distract yourself from her forwardness. You knew Bry had always been very open about sex and all other things that seemed personal and taboo, but you had never gotten used to the way that she was so nonchalant about it. She had once messaged you on her data pad that she wasn’t going to be able to meet you for breakfast because she had been “pounded so hard” that she didn’t think she could walk. That had definitely caused you to turn red, and it didn’t help that you were waiting for her in the cafeteria when you had read it.

Bry’s voice shook you out of your memory, and you lifted your head to look at her as she spoke, a mischievous glint in her eye as a smirk began to crawl onto her face. “How about we hook you up with the new radar technician? He’s pretty cute, and I heard from Tim that he’s pretty much obsessed with bucket head. Maybe as much as you are.” She shot you a wink and you groaned, placing your head in your hands.

Being that Bry was only a technician like yourself, albeit you two had different specialties, she spoke about Kylo Ren very freely, and would exclusively call him “bucket head” unless he was in the general vicinity, which, to be perfectly honest, was not often. You knew this was just a character trait of hers, as she had absolutely no filter in her brain for catching stupid things before they came out of her mouth, but it still made you nervous, and it didn’t help that she was saying that you were obsessed with him either.

“I still don’t understand how you manage to make friends with stormtroopers. They usually give us technicians such a hard time, but you always seem to just make friends with them so easily.”

You had chosen to ignore her proposal for a set-up, instead deciding to turn the tables on her.

“I’m just charming and lovable,” she replied, placing a hand under her chin and giving you the biggest, brightest, thousand watt smile that she could muster.

You rolled your eyes at that, laughing softly at her. “If you say so,” you sang, your voice lilting slightly as you drew out the “o” in “so”.

She only continued to smile at you before taking the last bite of her food and standing up from her spot across from you. “I’m setting you up whether you like it or not, yknow. Don’t think you distracted me from that.”

You groaned at her as you stood and picked your tray up from the table, following her to the trash cans before dumping your unfinished food into the garbage. “Yeah, well, he better be as cute as you say he is,” you relent, knowing full well that she would wear you down if you didn’t just agree to it now.

“Yes!” she beamed, clapping her hands together. “I’ll talk to Tim about it. See you at lunch tomorrow?”

“Yeah, see you at lunch.”

You watched her run out the doors of the cafeteria, knowing full well that she was late for her shift and rolled your eyes. You needed calmer friends.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's a little more info about my OC Bryony if you're interested! I hope you guys liked her! 
> 
> Bryony Clestri is a technician who's much too energetic for her own good and much too careless to be in the First Order. They really only keep her around because she's one of the only technicians who specializes in demolitions. She knows how to set it up so that there are controlled explosions when they need to completely redo a part of the base, and she's much too good at her job for them to fire her, so they begrudgingly keep her around and give her useless jobs that even a beginner technician could do when they don't need her for demolitions. The chief technicians pretty much just make sure that she's stationed far far away from anywhere anyone important would go.


	2. Anger Issues

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Two uploads in one week? That's wild. 
> 
> I've been on the hunt for more Matt the Radar Technician fics and I could only really find ones that were the Triplet AU, which really isn't my cup of tea, so I obviously had to write some more of my own fic. In my version no one really knows that Matt is Kylo Ren, they just think he's weird. Anyway, here's more exposition and more lunch time shenanigans.

As you walked into the mess hall for lunch, you noticed that Bryony wasn’t at your usual table, but it’s not as if you didn’t notice Bryony herself. She was sitting on the far right of the mess hall, wildly waving her arm at you as she saw you walk in.

You made your way over at her, sliding into the seat beside her and looking at the three men that were sitting across from you. You were an odd group; a lieutenant, a storm trooper, and three technicians. You recognized Tim, or TM-4375, as one of the stormtroopers that Bryony would hang out with most, but the other two were completely new faces.

There was the lieutenant, a clean-cut and competent looking man who introduced himself as Zach, and then there was Matt, a man who’s name you only knew because he still had his name tag pinned to his vest. He hadn’t said anything since you had sat down, and you had taken this short period of time to take in his appearance. He was tall, but you noted the way that his shoulders slumped as he tried to make himself seem smaller. Your eyes trailed across his face, glancing at his strong facial features, like a roman nose and full lips.

Bryony was right. He was pretty cute.

“Matt,” you spoke, surprising even yourself as it wasn’t usual for you to initiate conversations.

He narrowed his eyes at you for a second, before he let out a gruff, “I hadn’t told you my name yet.”

You blanched at that, only blinking and pointing at his name tag. “It’s right there,” you mumbled, wondering how he could’ve forgotten. Name tags were standard issue for technicians, and while they were part of the uniform, none of you, not even your high-ranking officers, ever bothered to wear one. Having a name tag was an easy way to see who a newbie was, as most technicians had either lost their nametags and never bothered to replace them, or simply had theirs buried in the bottom of a drawer somewhere.

“Oh,” was all he said, going back to picking at his food distastefully. It seemed that Matt hated the food in the cafeteria just as much as you did.

Bryony looked between the two of you and laughed awkwardly, trying to diffuse the situation. “Hey Matt, you like Mr. Bucket Head, don’t ya? [Y/N] here is a fan too!”

You could see Matt’s jaw twitch the tiniest amount as Bryony called Kylo Ren “bucket head”, but chose to ignore it as you blankly looked over at Bry.

“I don’t know if I’d say I’m a fan. I just think he deserves some respect, yknow? I feel like ruling everything is a pretty big goal.”

Matt began to open his mouth, but Bryony swiftly interrupted him before he could utter a single word.

“Yeah right, you’d totally let him choke you, if you know what I mean,” Bry winked, nudging you softly with her elbow.

You could hear the splutters coming from both Zach and Tim, and felt the blush that was crawling up your neck like ivy. “Bry,” you hissed, feeling completely mortified. “I never said any of that!”

“Yeah, but I know you were thinking it. We were just talking about this yesterday. I for one believe that bucket head is _definitely_ some weird alien species under there, but you swear up and down that he’s human. You even asked me yesterday if I thought that he would be hot. I don’t know about you, but that’s pretty indicative of something _far_ deeper.” She grinned at you, knowing full well that you knew that everything she had said about the previous conversation was true, but that in no way stopped you from trying to refute her claim. You were just about to argue with her when you heard Matt clear his throat, and your small group looked over at him.

Tim and Zach didn’t seem phased about his sudden urge to speak, and you figured that they were used to him, but you didn’t understand why he was suddenly interested in the conversation since when you had tried to talk to him when you first sat down he had completely rebuffed you. You knew that he was supposedly a fan of Kylo Ren, but that surely wasn’t all that he would talk about, right?

“I heard Kylo Ren has the best face ever.” He spoke in monotone, his deep voice completely steady as he looked at you with an expression that was unreadable.

You blinked at him, unsure what to say in response to this. “Um, how would you know this?” you asked, eyebrows furrowing together as you looked at him in confusion. He had an odd way of speaking. His tone was harsh, yet the words that came out of his mouth almost seemed like a joke.

“A friend of mine saw Kylo Ren in the shower once. He said that Kylo Ren has an 8 pack, that Kylo Ren is shredded.”

It was an odd way to express it, but you could see in his eyes that Matt was completely serious about this, so you simply nodded. Tim, on the other hand, was not as impressed, and immediately shook his head at that. “There’s no way. Kylo Ren is a punk bitch. He looks like he weighs 30 pounds soaking wet under that little black dress.”

You heard Bryony snicker, but you were more focused on Matt, who’s jaw seemed to tick as you saw his hands slowly ball up into fists at his side at Tim’s comment. “Kylo Ren is not a punk bitch,” he ground out, silent anger burning behind his eyes. His fingers gripped the edge of the bench seat, knuckles turning white as he held onto it in a death grip. You were sure that if he squeezed the bench any tighter that he would warp the metal underneath it.

Tim, however, didn’t seem to notice any of the anger that Matt was harboring, which was astonishing as he wasn’t really doing anything to hide it at all. “Hey, whatever you say, man,” was all he said before shrugging and take a swig of water.

Matt abruptly stood from the table at that, marching to the exit as his hands flexed at his sides.

You watched him leave, turning back to the group once the doors shut behind him. “Is he always like that?” you asked, voice softer than usual as you thought of the terrifying amount of rage that was hidden behind Matt’s brown irises.

“Yeah, he’s always been a little iffy,” Zach shrugs. “I really wouldn’t worry too much about it. Matt’s kind of odd. He came up to us on his first day here and went on a 20-minute rant about how Kylo Ren doesn’t get the credit he deserves. He hasn’t made any friends besides us at this point.”

Tim looked at Zach with raised eyebrows as he said the word “friends”. “You sure we’re his friends? He doesn’t seem to like us very much.”

“Well he eats lunch with us every time we see him,” Zach replies, seemingly unbothered by Matt and his strange ways.

“Not every day?” you ask, knowing that most technicians had the same schedule every day with very little change unless given a completely new assignment, and new assignments were only given out every few months or so.

“No. Sometimes he just doesn’t show up.”

“Yeah, it’s really weird,” Tim adds, taking a drink of water before continuing. “Sometimes he’s gone for weeks at a time. Personally, I think he’s in the psych ward when he’s not here. I mean, he’s obviously got some anger issues.”

You nod slowly at this, not really wanting to get further into Tim’s conspiracy theory. Although it was plausible, you didn’t feel like gossiping about someone you had only just met. It didn’t feel right, and you didn’t want to be one of those people who bought into anything and everything that you had heard.

You turned to Bryony for her opinion on the subject, only to find her carelessly scrolling through her datapad. You poked her cheek. “Were you even listening to anything?”

She smiled sheepishly and looked up at you, tucking a stray piece of hair behind her ear. “Not really, I kind of zoned out after Matt left,” she shrugged.

“I can’t believe you,” you laughed, rolling your eyes at her. You knew she had a short attention span, but never thought that it would have been this bad.

You turned back to Tim and Zach, pausing for a second to consider whether or not you were making a good decision by asking this or not. You decided “Why not?”, and made a small, barely audible sigh before you turned to Zach, figuring he would have more information than Tim since he was an officer. “Do you know where Matt is stationed? I could maybe help him with some engineering stuff. It’s weird because it’s like he doesn’t have regular assignments, but it’s worth a try, I guess. He seems like he could use another friend.”

“I think he works near the stations of the higher officers,” Zach replies, and your eyes widen. Only extremely skilled technicians were allowed to work near there, as trip ups seen by higher officers were usually met with harsh punishment. You had no idea why they had allowed a newbie to work in an extremely important area and paled at the thought. Maybe that was the reason Matt got upset so easily. Kylo Ren, someone he idolized, might have noticed him doing something wrong and doled out an extremely harsh punishment for it. You cringed at the thought, suddenly feeling a wave of sympathy wash over you for Matt’s situation.

“I can’t believe he gets to work near the superior officers,” Bryony pouts, crossing her arms. “I’ve been here _forever_ and I only get rinky dink side jobs.”

“Um, yeah Bry, but that’s because demolitions aren’t something that need to happen every day,” you laugh, not believing that this was the only thing that she had picked up on from the conversation. “Also,” you continued, looking straight at Bry with a smirk on your face, “you’d get your ass handed to you for not following protocol the minute that you even step foot on that part of base.”

She gasped at you, mock offense written all over her face as she held the expression for a few seconds before dropping it and snickering. “Honestly, you’re probably right.”

All of you had a good laugh at that, and you smiled, glad that your very awkward, yet not so awkward lunch had gone way better than you had expected it to. “Speaking of shifts, don’t you have one in like 5 minutes, Bry?” you asked her, pointing at the clock that was above the doors to the mess hall.

“No, I-“

She was cut off as Tim suddenly stood from his spot, a look of panic written on his features.

“Shift in 5 minutes?” you asked him, the amusement written clearly on your features.

He nodded quickly and Zach shook his head, standing up as well. “I’ll go with him. I’ll cover and say I needed his help with something. That way he won’t get punished so badly.”

You smiled softly at that, admiring the friendship between the two men as you waved goodbye before turning back to Bryony, only to be met with a mischievous curl of her lips.

“What?” you asked, knowing that Bry only wore that impish grin of hers when she had something especially cheeky to say.

“I bet that you’d let bucket head punish you as badly as he wanted.”

You stared at her as she cackled with glee, shaking your head and rolling your eyes at your comical best friend.

“Oh, ha ha,” you said, voice dry as you stood up from your table and beckoned at her to follow. “Come on Bry, I know you don’t have a shift right now, but maybe we can see if we can get me stationed near the higher officer stations.”

“Why do I have to come along?”

“I’ll threaten to bring you there if they refuse.”

“Hey!”

You grinned at her, proud of yourself for getting her back. “Gotcha.”


	3. New Assignment

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everyone!!!! I'm so sorry I'm so bad at uploading, but I have another chapter for you all! There's even a hint of plot in this one. Bet ya'll thought this fic was gonna be pure comedy. You thought wrong. Some stuff's gonna happen and it's gonna get spicy. Matt/Kylo doesn't make an appearance, but he will be a big part of the next one! Also, we get to see a little bit of Reader's past and home planet.
> 
> Anyway, thank you for everyone who's been giving me kudos and leaving comments! It really means a lot and helps give me the motivation I need to write!

You had been assigned to the bridge. You looked at your datapad in disbelief, blinking at the new assignment instructions that were detailed in the message you had received. This was _not_ what you meant by “working nearer to my superiors”.

Your request for a new assignment had taken two weeks to go through, which you found completely ridiculous, but it was what happened. As much as the First Order boasted about its efficiency, you didn’t think that a two-week waiting period for reassignment showed it.

You had seen Matt a few times within this waiting period, as he periodically stopped by your table for lunch with Zach and TM-4375. He never seemed too happy about it though, as he would constantly glare at Tim when the trooper would talk. You also noticed the way his jaw would click and his mouth would twitch just slightly, and the way that his hands would clench into fists as his eyes darkened with contempt. Those episodes only happened after Kylo Ren was brought up, but you found it terrifying how much rage would bubble up under the surface of Matt’s cold and indifferent exterior.

The plans you had of working with him immediately fell through the moment you had brought it up. Your supervisors had rapidly denied it, looking between each other and exchanging unspoken words when you had asked. They seemed to know something you didn’t, which you guessed was fine, as it wasn’t like your rank was very high up in the first place. They did assure you a new assignment, though, which you were grateful for, as your old job of checking the eco-cylinders for contamination and degradation of life support might’ve been the most tedious and mind-numbing assignment that you’d ever had.

Technicians weren’t very valued in the First Order. You were automatically deemed as replaceable unless you were Chief Engineer, and even then, you supposed that they didn’t have the best job security. You despised this system. Every ship in the First Order took so much damage from Resistance fighters and required so much maintenance that even the lowest ranking technicians were vital. The amount of manpower required to keep these giant spaceships functional was ridiculous. You’d like to see the officers _try_ and recalibrate the artificial gravity or repair the hyperdrive.

Your thoughts returned to the message printed upon your datapad, and you tapped the screen to fully reveal the message you had received.

“ _Technician [F/N] [L/N],_

_Due to the quality of work you have exhibited in the past, and your request for a new assignment more fitting of your skills, we have decided to place you on the bridge, where your main task will be to repair any malfunctions of flight and navigation controls, as there have been a few bugs in the system as of late. You will also perform routine diagnostics on main communication systems and be the first to respond if there are any technical issues or damages near the bridge. You will not engage with anyone unless necessary and maintain low visibility so as not to disturb the officers on the bridge. You will report to Lt. Nyla Moliere in briefing room J-27. Report in at 08:00 hours tomorrow morning.”_

_Your dedication is appreciated,_

_Chief Engineer Jax_ ”

You rolled your eyes, swiping your finger across the screen to close the message before looking down at your bright orange vest. Unless you were getting a new uniform, there was nothing “low visibility” about the practically neon monstrosity you were currently sporting. You understood that they had chosen such a bright color for safety reasons, as working with heavy machinery and repairing the larger parts of the ship meant that you had to be easily distinguishable so that your fellow engineers could keep an eye on you, but that didn’t mean that you had to like the atrocious color.

Figuring that staying up late wasn’t a good idea, especially if you had a briefing tomorrow, you set your datapad on your nightstand. Being late wasn’t an option. It was a new assignment _and_ it was on the bridge. You gulped as you shed your uniform, changing into something more comfortable as you climbed into bed. If you were ultra-unlucky you might catch General Hux’s attention, and you shuddered at the thought. Tim had seen him chew out cadets for having miniscule dents in their armor, and you didn’t even want to think about all the possible ways that he could nitpick your appearance. The next morning was sure to be a horror show, as making yourself look absolutely spotless was going to take a good while longer than normal.

 

You awoke groggily to the blaring alarm you had set on your datapad. You screwed your eyes shut tighter as you blindly felt around for it, arm outstretched from beneath your blankets as you searched to stop the deafening onslaught of your extremely loud alarm.

You had always set your alarms to be much much louder than appropriate, especially on days that were important. Being late to anything was undesirable, but when you were on a military base where people have been thrown out of airlocks for tiny mistakes because their commanding officer was in a bad mood, being late was pretty much the equivalent of pissing in their caf.

It was obvious how much you didn’t want to get out of bed. A groan left your lips as you moved, finally opening your eyes and slamming your hand down on the “dismiss” label of your datapad alarm. You absolutely did not want to get up, but you knew you had to, and so you dragged yourself out of bed and towards your refresher.

You didn’t live in the barracks like the storm troopers did, so most technicians had their own refreshers, as tiny as they may be. Amenities that technicians had were halfway between an officer and a storm trooper, as your rooms were absolutely miniscule, and you had to eat the grey goop that was served in the cafeteria, but you had your own refreshers. It was give and take, you supposed, although the thought of having to go to breakfast and eat whatever food-substance they had prepared for that day wasn’t the most appetizing thing in the world.

The water of your shower was hot, and you sighed as you stepped into the stream. The heat soothed your skin as you washed it, humming contentedly as the droplets rolled over you. This was nice. Living on an icy wasteland meant that you despised going outside, and that the base itself was always cold. The shower was really the only modicum of warmth you could salvage from this place.

You missed your homeland, Graloudia. It was a small mid rim planet that was beautifully green and lush. There were large fields of flowers that could stretch for miles and beautiful forests that were home to many kinds of plants and wildlife. You remembered the small cottage you grew up in, far away from the large city of Losidi that served as the capital. Your parents had always lived in the same small town, and were gardeners like their parents before them. They would grow many types of beautiful flowers to deliver to the city for perfumes and gifts, and were always called upon when everyone would celebrate Laveross, a tribute to the wonderful landscape of your planet.

You sighed at the memory, a soft smile slipping onto your features as the thoughts of the grassy plains you played in floated around in your head. You hadn’t been back in three years. The First Order wasn’t keen on giving out vacations, and thus you had been stuck in space for quite a while.

The water in your shower had begun to run cold, and you groaned as you realized that this meant it was time to remove yourself from the comforting spray. You reluctantly turned off the water, stepping out of the shower and onto the chilled tile of your refresher. Quickly grabbing a towel, you dried yourself off before moving to slip on your uniform.

It wasn’t as if your uniform was uncomfortable, but you very much wished that they would change it. Technicians easily stood out among the personnel of the first order, and not in a way that made sense. Everyone on every base was wearing some shade of black, white, or grey, and yet every technician had somehow been stuck in a tan and orange jumpsuit. You mumbled to yourself as you got ready, drying your hair before tying it up into a smooth, regulation ponytail and slicking back the few flyaway hairs that you had. A grey jumpsuit with a red vest seemed more First Order-y to you. Maybe you should put it in the stupid “suggestion box” that was placed right outside one of the cafeterias.

Everyone had thought it had been a joke at first, put there by some rash soul who hadn’t yet learned the punishment for unnecessary camp, but that wasn’t the case. Some officer had posed the idea so as to help “boost morale” on the ship. You didn’t understand how this idea had been approved, but it had, and now employees had an official suggestion box to submit their ideas about the First Order to. Everyone pretty much decided that you had to be crazy to use the suggestion box for anything other than insignificant details, like asking for different food for lunch or an added activity to the recreational rooms. You figured that your uniform suggestion was just mundane enough for you to not get in trouble over it if you ever did decide to use the strange little box.

Completing your uniform with your vest and checking that you had all of your tools, you grabbed your datapad before heading out the door. The hallways of all First Order ships looked the same, and the large residential hallway you were standing in was no different. The walls were a dull grey, with a strange geometric angling in some places. You walked towards the briefing rooms, datapad in your arms as you passed by formations of storm troopers. They marched on without paying any attention to you, and you were grateful for it, as you knew that there were many of them who enjoyed giving technicians a lot of grief.

You arrived at briefing room J-27, and took a quick look at your datapad. 08:00 hours, right on time. Taking a deep breath and making sure your appearance was perfect, you stepped into the room, finding Lt. Moliere sitting at the large table in the middle of the room.

“Technician [L/N] reporting for duty, Ma’am,” you called, giving her a salute as she stood up from her seat. She returned your salute, as was customary, and gestured for you to sit down.

She was tall, you noted, sitting down in the seat across from her. Her black hair was pinned up in a perfect bun and professionally slicked back. Her uniform was crisp, the black fabric fitting her perfectly. She definitely embodied the look of what a First Order officer was supposed to be.

“You’ll be working on the bridge, correct?” She asked, and you nodded at her before replying.

“Yes Ma’am. I asked for reassignment and was stationed on the bridge.”

She nodded silently, thumbing through the papers in front of her. You assumed it was your dossier. You’d been working for the Order for quite a while, and while you were very good at staying out of trouble, Bryony would manage to drag you into some questionable situations every once in a while.

You watched the Lieutentant as she silently read over your file, squirming in your seat as her dark eyes, swept over every page. You studied her silently, trying to gauge her reactions to figure out what she was reading. A quirk of an eyebrow here, and a twitch of the lips there. You calmed a little. She was prim and proper, but there was no doubt there was some amusement that was gained from reading over your past escapades.

“Alright. Technician [L/N]. You surely know your duties from the message that Chief Engineer Jax sent to you last night. You will report to him for any technical issues that you need help on, and will report to me about any personnel issues. The bridge always needs to run with top efficiency, and as a technician it is your job to maintain that. Be sure to keep yourself presentable, as the General and Commander Ren will often stop by this area of the ship. If the Commander destroys any of the systems near the bridge it is your job to be the first to attempt repairs.”

You nodded quickly at this, feeling anxiety at the thought. You hadn’t thought much about it last night, but you figured that since Commander Ren was near the bridge, that was where most of his destruction would take place.

“You are dismissed, Technician.”

Lt. Moliere stood from her seat, and you scrambled to stand as well, knowing the ranking system put you below her and you didn’t want to seem disrespectful to your new commanding officer. She watched as you stood, a gentle smile gracing her face. She was amused at your antics.

“Thank you, Ma’am.”

You saluted her before turning on your heel and walking out the door. You heard the small ping of you datapad and you lifted it, swiping your finger across the screen to open the message. It was your new shift schedule. You looked at it before looking at the time, noticing that you only had ten minutes before you had to report to the bridge.

Stars, you hoped that the bridge was near.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Graloudia: a planet of my own creation that's pretty much just a giant beautiful meadow with rivers and streams that have beautiful clear water. It's pretty much an entire planet that looks like a fairy garden. They have one big city, Losidi, and even though spaceships dock there I imagine it to look like a little village from 17th century Europe. It's still just as technologically advanced as other planets, but with an old world aesthetic and great appreciation for nature.


	4. Staring Contests

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ya girl's not dead!!!! I keep saying I'm gonna update more frequently but uhhhhh yeah. Sorry for the wait you guys! Hope y'all are still interested. Enjoy!

You paused as the doors of the bridge slid open, blinking twice as you took in the scene before you. It was your first day, first minute even, and you had just walked into a chaotic nightmare.

Kylo Ren was screaming, his voice garbled by his modulator as he hacked at a control panel. About ten feet away, General Hux was yelling at Ren to stop. You could tell how upset the General was as his face was slowly changing color to match his hair. As the two yelled, you could see other bridge officers bickering amongst themselves, and others that were having arguments almost as loud as the General’s screeching.

This was not the way you wanted your first shift to start.

You quietly shuffled inside, silently moving past everyone towards an unmanned command station to try and figure out what systems the Commander was destroying. You didn’t think that low visibility was possible in your uniform, but if this was what the bridge was always like, you understood how they could think so.

You continued your work on the command station, going through the systems logs to see which ones had been shut down within the last hour, figuring those were the ones that the Commander had most likely broken. It was only until the room went quiet and you heard the General speak that you looked up from your work.

“If you’re done acting like a petulant child, Ren, I have a technician to greet. They were supposed to be here five minutes ago, but it looks like punctuality isn’t their strong suit.”

You turned around at that, clearing your throat and raising your hand slightly. “Um, I’m here General,” you said awkwardly, not knowing the protocol for a situation like this. It’s not as if the Order had given you training on how to introduce yourself in the midst of two superior officers screaming so loudly that it might even break physics and travel through space.

“Why didn’t you introduce yourself earlier, technician?”

Hux stared at you, wrinkling his nose slightly in disapproval as his eyes swept over you. You could practically feel him picking apart your appearance as you nervously shifted your weight from foot to foot.

“You seemed,” you paused for a moment, unsure what to call the psychotic event that had transpired. “…busy,” you settled on, resisting the urge to shrug your shoulders as you made eye contact with the General.

Hux snarled at that, looking pointedly at Ren before returning to you. “Yes, well, it seems I don’t have to tell you your current assignment. It’s obvious enough.” He nods towards the destroyed control panel where Kylo Ren is still standing, shoulders heaving with rage but lightsaber now returned to the holster on his belt.

Your eyes darted toward the Commander, hoping that he would move or leave so that you could get to the panel without being completely terrified of being sliced in half. You turned to General Hux one more time, only to find him already talking to another officer. It’s not like you thought the General cared much about your safety, but a nod that it was okay to approach Commander Ren while he was in this state would’ve been much appreciated.

You slowly shuffled your way over to Commander Ren, inching closer and closer to the control panel as you tried not to enter whatever bubble that he deemed to be his personal space. The control panel he slashed up was big enough for you to remain about three feet away from him, which you deemed to be a somewhat safe distance. You were just about to pry open the torn up metal door of the panel to expose the circuitry before you heard Kylo Ren’s modulated voice from beside you.

“Don’t touch that.”

You froze, hand held in mid air as you stared straight ahead. You didn’t know what to do. Slowly turning your head, you looked up at him, seeing the cold and impersonal metal mask that he always wore.

It looked much less like a bucket from close up.

You had to stop yourself from laughing as the thought ran through your head. You were sure that the Commander would not appreciate you laughing in his face. After the thought dissipated, you were soon brought back to reality, and the fact that you were now stuck waiting for Commander Ren to allow you to do your job.

You continued to stare at him and his mask, not understanding why you weren’t allowed to touch the control panel, but obeying anyway. It was a direct order from a superior, it’s not like you could simply say no.

It seemed like hours passed as you waited, slowly bringing your hand back down to your side as the staring contest (you assumed he was looking at you too) continued.

“You can touch it now,” was all he said before turning on his heel and walking out the doors of the bridge.

This had effectively knocked you out of your trance as you turned back to the control panel. Opening it, you felt that the metal was warm, and you realized that if you had touched it earlier you would have burned yourself.

Did the Commander know it was too hot to touch, or was it just a coincidence that he decided to exercise his power at that exact moment? If he did know it was hot, how? Was that how the force worked? Was it that strong?

Questions swirled around in your head as you tried to fix the control panel. The wiring was completely burned through and you couldn’t focus enough to properly examine what else had been damaged. You looked around the bridge, hoping that no one had noticed that you had pretty much been doing nothing for the past hour.

You groaned softly, feeling frustrated but obviously not wanting to draw any attention to yourself. You’d barely started your shift on the bridge and you already felt like you needed a break. If only. With a sigh you turned back to your broken and burnt control panel, committing to yourself that you would try and actually focus on fixing the damage.

Hours flew by when you finally got into your groove, the technical part of your brain working like a computer as you examined pieces of the control panel and used a nearby command station to figure out what components needed to be replaced and what functions were damaged. By the time your shift was over, you had managed to get two other technicians up to the bridge to help you repair the control panel.

You looked at your two colleagues, smiling as you entered the last little bit of info onto your datapad. The control panel still wasn’t fixed, as a lot of damage had been done to it, but progress was made and you at least knew what systems were currently down.

“See you guys,” you waved, slipping your datapad back into your pocket as you moved to leave the bridge, hearing the soft chorus of goodbyes from your fellow technicians as you walked out the door.

Working on the bridge wasn’t nearly as stressful as you thought it was going to be, with the exclusion of the chaotic scene you first walked in on of course. Sure the General was on the bridge and that was nerve-wracking, but it seemed that as long as it _looked_ like you were doing work that you were fine. Plus, you had found out that the General didn’t know much about the technical aspects of the ship, so you could spit out a bunch of useless jargon that made no sense and he would be appeased. It was a fun trick to have in your back pocket, but you figured that you probably shouldn’t use it that much, less he actually learn something about what you were doing and discover that you had been feeding him nonsense. That would definitely turn out badly, no doubt about it.

You walked down the halls of Star Killer Base, pausing as you reached the mess hall. There was a chance that Bryony would be inside, as she spent most of her time there. There weren’t really many recreational activities to do on Star Killer, and with a schedule as free as Bry’s, that meant doing a whole lot of nothing.

You shrugged and figured that it was worth a shot, and if she wasn’t there you could always message her. The doors slid open as you walked in, and you quickly scanned the room for any sign of Bry’s obnoxious and exaggerated movements. It always seemed like she had the inability to talk without her hands, and that meant it was quite easy to spot her, and also quite easy for her to get in trouble with her superiors.

You didn’t see her, although you did see a familiar looking blond sitting alone at a table.

“Matt?” you asked, approaching him cautiously. You could never really tell what kind of mood he would be in, as the past times you had seen him had been strangely intense encounters.

“Yes,” was all he said in response, looking at you with those deep brown eyes of his.

You opened your mouth to respond, but closed it again soon after. You had no idea what to say to this man. You knew he liked Kylo Ren, and that was about it.

“Um. Kylo Ren talked to me today,” you said, sliding into the seat across from him so that you weren’t just awkwardly standing by.

“How was that?” His voice was monotone, and you swore you could hear the disinterest, but you continued the conversation nonetheless. It didn’t look like Matt had very many friends on the base, and while you understood why, the man was a bit strange after all, you didn’t think that entailed not having any friends at all.

“It was kind of strange if I’m being honest. He’s very intimidating.”

You swore you saw Matt’s lips quirk upwards at that, but it was hardly noticeable. You didn’t know. It could’ve been one of his annoyed jaw ticks or simply you focusing too hard on him to try and gauge his reactions. It was really unnerving to talk to someone who showed no emotion whatsoever.

He only hummed in response, nodding his head as he looked at you.

You stared right back at him, eyes locking. You felt entranced for the second time that day, watching the light bounce off of his brown irises. “I-“ you started before flushing and looking away. Matt said nothing, only standing up from his seat and locking eyes with you for another second before turning around and leaving.

“Bye,” you mumbled, aware that he hadn’t heard you, but saying it anyway.

You sat there in stunned silence for a few seconds before getting up as well. This day was just getting stranger.

Pulling out your datapad, you began to text Bryony, hoping that she was free. She most likely was, but once in a while she would have a few menial tasks to do around base.

_“Bry?”_

You slipped your datapad back into your pocket as you got up to walk back to your room, and heard it ping not a few seconds later.

_“Yeah?”_

_“You free right now?”_

You walked as you texted, making sure to look up every now and again. You have never felt more embarrassed than when you had walked directly into a trash disposal unit while texting. That was definitely not an event that you wanted a repeat of.

_“Yeah, why?”_

_“Meet me in my room? I had such a weird day today.”_

_“Spill.”_

You laughed softly, tapping your access code into the keypad of your room before entering.

_“I’ll tell you when you get here.”_

With that you set your datapad on your small table, moving to your dresser to pull out a nice pair of pajamas. You needed a shower. You looked down at your uniform, wrinkling your nose at all the grease and dirt that had gotten on it.

“Shower first. Bry can wait a little bit if she gets here,” you nod to yourself, slipping out of your uniform to step into the nice warm spray of your shower. Stars, you loved washing all of the dirt and grime off of yourself after a long day.

You forced yourself to move at a steady pace and not stand under the water for a ridiculous amount of time.

Stepping out of the shower, you heard the telltale pings from your datapad, which meant that a very impatient Bry was standing outside. Quickly changing into your clothes, you hit the button on your door to let her in.

“About time,” she whined, dramatically flopping onto your bed with a hand held to her forehead. “I was dying out there.”

You laughed, watching her sit up from her spot and grin at you.

“So. What happened?”

“Kylo Ren and I had a staring contest. It was really weird. I don't really know what to make of it.”

“What?! Did you get to see under his mask? How did you do that you guys have never met! Oh! I bet it was your feminine charm, huh? I knew you had it in you,” she rambled, and you snickered and rolled your  eyes at her once she was finally finished.

“No. He had the mask on. It was on the bridge while I was trying to fix the control panel.”

With a deflated sigh Bryony shook her head, once more flopping back down onto your bed.

“Ah well, a girl can dream. Maybe next time?”

You snorted at her, flopping back down onto your bed as well.

“Yeah, Bry. Next time I get into a staring contest I’ll make sure it’s with Kylo Ren with his mask off.”


End file.
